The Underside of Leaves
by malendiree
Summary: "It is not what is seen. It is what is known forever in the mind." Bella and Edward know three things. One, life sucks. Two, they'll always hate each other. Three, maybe they're each other's only hope. Drabble, AH, Cannon/NonCanon couples, HEA.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey all, Mal here. This is my first Fanfic, so please be gentle. Warnings: Death, Suicide, Sex, Drug Use, and severe Angst will be in this story at some time or another, if any of these things bothers you, you have been warned. In other words, I will not be having an update schedule but I will say that I have the whole story planned out from start to finish, and Parts One, Two, and Three written already, so there you go. Hopefully, I'll update at least once every couple days.**

**As far as cliffies, I'm not a huge fan of them, so I will always try to post multiple chaps at a time to avoid them.**

**No beta, I kinda don't have enough patience to find one before I start posting, but if someone's willing, please lemme know!**

**Also, yes, there will be recognizable names here, but not how you would expect them to be. So yeah, just ask any questions for clarifications.**

**Full Summary:** "It is not what is seen. It is what is known forever in the mind." Bella and Edward have a lot of things they've seen, but only some things that they'll know forever. The first one? That life can be a bitch. The second one? That they'll hate each other forever. The third? That maybe they can be the only one's to heal each other. Drabble, All Human, cannon and non cannon couples, HEA, I promise. =]

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins To Blow

One: Bad Day

_**Bella – age 4**_

Momma always says there are good days and bad days. Good days are when she and Daddy are talking over things and staying happy, and bad days are when Momma and Daddy cry.

Today was a bad day.

I feel bad, cause Katie won't be here any more to make me stop being mad at her, but I'm still mad at her. Gramma Renne and Grampa Charlie always tell us we can only go in the pool with our floaties on. I don't know what Katie decided to go in anyway, but when Daddy found her he wouldn't stop crying.

Today was a bad day.

**AN: So there you go, your first drabble.**


	2. Chapter 2

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins To Blow

Two: Freeze

_**James – age 37**_

There is only one thing in the world I will ever hate myself for more than losing Bella's mother, and that's losing Kate.

It had been a long night, the theater was booking multiple shows as the summer musicals were coming in and I had stayed four hours longer than I usually would setting up so that takedown would be easier on the crew the next few days. So the next day, after Bella helped me give her little sister Katie a bath from their pool time, I set both girls down in their room at my parent's house, opting for a nap on the couch, and it seemed like two second later that Bella was shaking my arm.

"Daddy! Daddy, Katie's outside in the pool without her floaties on!"

Alert, I stood up, my body forcing itself out of it's sleep by running out to the back yard, tripping by the yacking dogs as I threw open the screen door to the back yard. I could see my father, all the way in the back in the six foot hole in the ground, working on the rumbling pool filter and as my eyes moved to the calm still water, I felt everything in me freeze.

"_Katie!"_ My voice felt like it was yelling, but I knew it was only a whimper.


	3. Chapter 3

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins to Blow

Three: Sirens

_**Bella**_

I expected Daddy to be mad. Any time we got too close to the water without our floaties or suits on, Daddy would always pick us up and we would be grounded from the pool for a day.

I didn't expect for him to be so upset, though. But he jumped in the water as I ran after him, but suddenly Gramma Renee was there, grabbing me from running into the pool too.

"_Oh, God. CHARLIE! CHARLIE!"_ Gramma kept screaming for Grampa as I watched Daddy pull Katie from the water, setting her down on the cement right next to the baby handprints of him and his siblings that they made when the cement was wet a long time ago. He was pushing on Katie's chest, and he kept giving her kisses.

That's how Daddy would always wake us up, with kisses and tickles.

"_Katie? Katie?" _Daddy's voice was a yell, but then as I heard Grampa run up behind him I heard him start crying. As Gramma handed me to Grampa Charlie and ran inside for the phone, Daddy started crying even louder.

He sounded like our dogs, our husky babies, howling at the moon. Underneath all the ruckus I heard sirens.


	4. Chapter 4

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins to Blow

Four: Run

_**Jessica – age 26**_

Today hadn't been so bad. My patients were all happy, minus Josie who'd had a minor freak out about forgetting which button to press on her remote, but other than that, it was alright. Now I was counting the stores, my body elbow deep in syringes as I made sure our stock numbers were right, until I heard someone call my name.

"Jess!" I turned around, and saw Mike running toward me, his voice frantic.

I opened my mouth to ask him what all this hubbub was about, but he spoke before I could.

"Renee just called, it's Katie-"

I ran.

I don't know what happened to the syringes, I never asked. I never went back to work.


	5. Chapter 5

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins To Blow

Five: Chase

_**Bella**_

"Someone take Bella inside, _please_."

"No! I wanna stay here! Daddy, what's wrong with Katie?"

"Bella, get inside the house – just please listen to me?"

Grampa picked me up and rushed me inside, pulling the phone out of my Gramma's trembling hands as men ran through the house and to the back yard.

"Grampa, what's going on?"

Grampa didn't answer, but I heard him on the phone. "Shaun? Katie was just found in the pool, call the family, the paramedics are here…God…Shaun, I don't think she made it."

"Grampa!"

He didn't listen to me, so I turned around and ran behind my Gramma, holding onto her skirt and looking around her legs to see the guys in blue shirts put my Sissy on a bed. They started to roll her away and my Daddy followed them, so I followed him.

As they put her in the back of an ambulance, I grabbed for Daddy's shirt as he tried to go in after them.

"Daddy!"

"Bella," he turned down to look at me. "Honey, listen, you gotta stay here. Stay with Gram and Gramp, okay? I gotta go with your sister." Then he was inside and the doors were shut and he was speeding down the street.

"Daddy!" I tried to chase after them, but I couldn't keep up.


	6. Chapter 6

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins to Blow

Six: Lost

_**Jessica**_

The doors to St. Joseph's emergency room flew open as I raced down the hall. I stopped short at the nurses station, before hearing his voice behind me. In another time, another place, I would have listened to that soft crooning voice anywhere.

I know I had Mike now, and things were great, but you couldn't forget voices like Jim Swan's. The man could melt steel with his soft tenor.

Following the soft murmuring, I found myself in the family waiting room, and dread filled my stomach before I even heard his words. I knew what this room was, and it was never if your loved one was gonna be okay.

"Mom?" James was crouched on the floor, his tall body curled into a ball with the hospital phone shakily held to his ear.

"Mom, they just…Mom they just called it. Katie's dead."


	7. Chapter 7

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins to Blow

Seven: Tears

_**Bella**_

Daddy and Katie were gone for twenty minutes before the phone call. I sat on Grampa's lap the whole time as he squeezed me.

Grampa didn't talk much, but he gave good squeezes. He always told me that squeezes were for me to feel better, but I think that right now he was squeezing me to make himself feel better.

Then the phone rang, and Gramma rushed to the phone.

"Jimmy?"

And then she was on the floor, sobbing as the phone dropped from her hand and clattered to the kitchen floor.


	8. Chapter 8

The Underside of Leaves

Part One: The Wind Begins to Blow

Eight: Shatter

_**Jessica**_

Tunnel vision.

The only thing I could see outside of the black shadows on the side of my vision was Jim, sobbing in a ball on the floor as the phone stayed on his ear.

The only thing I could hear was some bitch screaming as my knees sunk to the floor. I wrapped my arms around my middle as I felt every part of my body falling away from me, trying to hold some piece of myself inside so the hospital wouldn't have to clean me off the floor.

The bitch was still screaming.

It wasn't until Jim turned, and crawled onto the floor toward me and wrapped his arms around me, his tenor whispering "Shhh…" shakily that I realized the bitch screaming loud enough to break glass was me, and as I woke up from my haze, my screams turning to sobs, I looked out the window, hyperventilating.

The trees, Katie's favorite kind – tall, good for climbing, and super "leafy" – were being blown by gusts of wind.


End file.
